Earning Money with your Blog - Part 1

Blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your business Web site and it really does boost your search engine rankings if you post regularly. However, the return on your investment into the time it takes to write posts may seem elusive. That is, you have a hard time pinpointing exactly how your blog is making you any money. Indirectly, you are because you driving potential clients to your site and building customer relationships and loyalty. However, if you want to get a little more out of your blog, it is possible to make money directly from your blog.

For example, you can sell advertising space on your blog. Here are two ways to do this:

• Approach potential advertisers and submit a proposal. You will need specific stats to show the popularity of your blog, and you'll need to match advertisers with the needs of your blog's target market. This process could take some time, but once you find a few good matches, it will be mutually beneficial for both you and your advertisers.
• Use Google AdSense. AdSense will allow you to choose categories that relate to your blog content so that the ads will fit your target market. It's a free service, but you don't much have control over which ads appear on your site.

One thing to consider - how will your readers react to advertising? Consider your target market and the reasons they are reading your blog. Will they be turned off by seeing ads on your site? Will the ads reflect your business values and opinions? You'll want to ensure that the ads displayed are not promoting a product or concept that conflicts with your business image. Although Google Adsense is an easy way to post ads on your blog, working directly with advertisers is the only way to guarantee ad content.

What do you think? Do you advertise on your blog, and if so, how do you accomplish this? We'd appreciate your input!

If ads don't seem like the right thing for your blog, we'll have more money-making suggestions in the next few days.