Writing for money and blogging are a match made in internet heaven. Not only does blogging give you the freedom to do what you do best, write; it also comes with the freedom of being your own editor and publisher. You can write on whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. It’s no wonder that blogs have become so popular.

But I’d assume that the reason you are reading this article is not to become a world famous blogger, although that would be nice. The reason you are here is because you want to learn how to build a blog, write some post, and somehow get it to generate revenue. I won’t be going super in-depth with this post, but it’s good place start if you want a solid foundation. So I am going to start with the basics of blogging and how it relates to writing for money.

First thing you need to understand is what a blog is exactly. I’m sure you’ve heard the word several times. There is nothing complicated about a blog. Blog is short for the “web log.” Its original purpose was to provide an online log or journal with post being listed in chronological order. Sounds simple enough right? The beautiful thing about blogs is that you can truly customize it to make it your own without all the time and effort that goes into creating a website from scratch.

The reason why blogs have exploded during our time is largely attributed to services that will allow you to create a blog for free such as Google’s Blooger, WordPress, and Squidoo. Pretty much anyone with a computer and internet access can get a nice blog up and running within thirty minutes. For those you who desire the ability to further customize the layout of their blog, self-hosting a blog is an option for you to consider that is not too expensive.

Now the question that is probably burning on your mind is how can blogging help you in realize your dream of writing for money. There are two essential factors to monetizing a blog: first, your blog needs to have a steady stream of traffic. Second, you need to implement a way to convert that traffic in to revenue. Here is how an ideal blog is set up: Post great content, content drives traffic to the blog, traffic is converted to revenue through a previously implemented strategy.

Now knowing that bit of information, if I were to ask you what is the most important factor of a blog that would give it the most earning potential, what would your answer be? If you said traffic, then you are wrong. The earning potential of your blog rest solely on the quality of your post. Why would people visit your site if there is nothing worthwhile to read? Although you are not selling your writing in the traditional sense, it is still what is going to make you money with your blogs.

So let’s look at a few different options you have to monetize your blog

1.       CPC Ad Networks

CPC simply stands for cost-per-click. These are usually the Google ads that you see on site. How it works is advertisers will pay a predetermined amount of money for each time their ad is clicked. The Ad network will then spilt the profit with you. Probably the biggest Ad network is Google’s Adsense program. Google uses Adsense to match up ads to relevant content. So if you write a post on the NBA, then Google will place a basketball related ad on your site because that is what your readers are interested in. Google Adsense is not the only ad network, but it is the one I’d recommend for begineers simply because it is so easy to use and easy to implement into your site.

2.       CPM Ad Networks

CPM stands for cost-per-impression. These ads do not require a visitor to click on them, instead they pay you each time a visitor see them. Usually you will get a fixed amount of money for every thousand visitors that see an ad.  This type of advertising will only make you money if receive a good amount a traffic each month. Obliviously, as your traffic grows so will the impressions and thus your revenue. Once again there are several different ad networks that offer CPM adverting. The one I use most often is Adbrite. However I will go more into details of your options in a later post.

3.        Affiliate Networks

Affiliate networks are a great way to make money with a blog especially if you mange to connect with a readers. The main premise of affiliate networks is that you get rewarded for sending a costumer or potential costumer to a business. If that costumer buys a product, then you will get a percentage of the revenue. In my experiences, affiliate networks work great with blogs because after a while your readers will develop a trust for you. They will be more likely to try out a product just because you recommended it.

4.       Personal Ad Network

Selling ads space on your blog directly is another option you can look at. However, you should wait until you have a steady amount of traffic each month. The more visitors your blog gets, the more lucrative an ad spot on your blog will be and companies will be willing to pay you more. If this is a route you would like to go, then I would advise you to wait until your blog is mature.

Once people create a blog, post great content, and put ads on it; they sit back and wait for the money to pile in. Then after a few days of making nothing, they often wonder how long does it take to make money with a blog. That is a very good question that I would like to go over a little.

There is no accurate way to predict how much money a blog will make or how quick, but there are ways to estimate. If you want to know how long it will take for your blog to make money, then there are some variables that you should look at such as: how much competition does will your blog have in its niche, how much interest will people have in your topic, and how long will it take for your blog to get pick up by search engines.

The more competition you blog has, the harder it will be for it to get noticed. That’s why I always recommend beginners to start off in a niche where they know they can be successful. But you need to keep in mind that you have to find a topic or niche that people will be genuinely interested in. Traffic is the lifeline of your revenue, and if people aren’t interested then they won’t visit your blog.

If you have a bit of entrepreneurism in you and you’d like to find a job writing for money, then blogging just might be what you were looking for. You will get to control your own hours, what you write about, heck if you want you can even control who gets to see your site. But if having an extra source of income what you are really interested in then you have to realize that there are two things that are crucial for monetizing a blog: your writing and traffic. Without either of those your blog will not make any money no matter how pretty it looks. The better your post are, the more traffic coming to your blog, the more money your blog will make. Yes, it is that simple.