How to Blog for Profit in 3 Simple Steps

Blogging can be a fun activity and it can also be profitable. However, blogging for profit requires quite a different strategy compared to blogging for fun. If you are blogging for profit or plan to do so, then here are 3 simple but essential steps you need to do to succeed in making money from your blog.

1. Set Up Your Own Blog Site

If you are blogging for profit, you must have your own blog site, and not rely on a free blog from free blogging sites like blogger.com, blogspot.com, myspace.com, etc. The reasons you need your own site are:

(a) it projects a more professional and serious image of your blogging,

(b) you can add a lot more useful and essential plugins to give functionality and efficiency to your site, and

(c) you have full control and ownership over your work.

My personal preference for a blogging platform is WordPress as it is easy to set up, easily modifiable and has almost limitless themes and plugins to make your blog more aesthetic, functional and almost 100% automated. Some plugins are essential tools to make your blog site more visible and profitable.

Choose a specific niche to blog, preferably one that you are passionate about. Only then will you have the energy, enthusiasm and knowledge to blog regularly.

Blogging for profit also means that you’ll need to discretely add advertisements like Google AdSense or ClickBank to your site, and to promote some great and related products through your blog postings from time to time.

2. Blog Regularly

Blogging is fun and is often addictive. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll want to do it as often as possible.

The key to a profitable blog is consistency in your posting. Set a daily schedule of 1 to 2 hours to post in your blog. Post sensibly and make sure that your postings contain information that is useful for your readers.

Do not post simply for the sake of posting. It is not necessary to have a long post. Sometimes, several one or two paragraph postings can be more beneficial and welcomed than a single long post.

3. Publicize Your Blog

Profitable blogging depends on 2 important factors. The first is the quality of your blog, The second is how extensive you can reach out to the people out there.

So, once your blog site is up and running, do not feel shy to promote it to your friends and colleagues. Publicizing and marketing your blog site is an essential part to blogging profitably. Include your blog site URL in your name cards and hand them out liberally to friends, colleagues and acquaintances, even to strangers and people you are meeting for the first time.

If you are passionate enough in your subject matter, they will see and understand your eagerness in sharing your passion with them.

You also need to expose your blog site to as many people as possible online. You can do that through various methods, such as advertising, using social networks, and collecting a following for your blog via newsletters sign ups and RSS. There are many WordPress plugins that helps to link your postings from your site to other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitters.

If you do all these 3 steps right, and you blog regularly and consistently, I can assure you that you’ll be making money from your blog within 6 months or at most a year.